“I try to do my job, and hope that it helps bring a smile. And maybe some hope to people.”
Emma Stone is a hopeful actress and Ryan Gosling is a jazz pianist and their life-changing love affair in La La Land is the perfect cinematic journey for the holiday and beyond. This uplifting boy meets girl musical finds Ryan Gosling (Sabastian) and Emma Stone, (Mia), two good pals in their third film adventure together, with sizzling chemistry.
“There is no one else like Emma; she is one-of-a-kind and brings that same quality to Mia,” Ryan said of his leading lady in this film. “You feel for Mia as someone who has been working in L.A. trying to catch a break, because you can see just how special and unique she is. But you can also see that Mia’s a bit different and not necessarily what these people in the entertainment world are looking for – where they often want people who are interchangeable with one another. She’s just not that.”
The film from Summit Entertainment begins on the L.A. Freeway. This is where Sabastian meets Mia in a traffic jam that mirrors all too well the gridlock they are each navigating in their lives. Both are focused on the kind of near-impossible hopes that are the lifeblood of the city. The beautiful and sweeping film is colourful, emotional and brings us back to the days of love conquering all.
Emma faced a one-of-a-kind challenge with the role of Mia, playing a character who has to be at once anchored in very real goals and feelings, while also be able to erupt into musical fantasia at a moment’s notice, combining the two seamlessly. She was aided in the journey by her dramatic roles, romantic comedies and her skills on Broadway as Sally Bowles in the revival of Cabaret. In the heart of Los Angeles, aspiring actress Mia serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions while dedicated jazz musician Sebastian plays in dingy bars in order to scrape by. The two meet and fall in love, but, as success mounts, the dreams they worked so hard to maintain threaten to tear them apart.
The 28-year-old Emma grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, and was drawn to acting as a child. Her first performance was in a theatre production of Wind in the Willows in 2000. She is best known for her first starring role in the 2010 teen comedy, Easy A, followed by the hit film, Crazy, Stupid, Love in 2011, starring Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore and Steve Carrel. Her stellar acting was highlighted in the films, The Help, The Amazing Spider-Man, and its sequel and Birdman, with Michael Keaton. She also starred with Colin Firth in Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight. Her Broadway debut was the rival of the musical Cabaret, which was perfect training for the musical La La Land.
One of the highest-paid actresses in the world in 2015, Stone has been nominated for an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards, and has won two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Aside from her acting career, she promotes several causes, such as increasing awareness of breast cancer.
What is your take on fame?
Emma Stone: If you use it for the greater good then it is wonderful.
What do your fans ask you?
ES: They enjoy my work. Some younger ones ask me how to pursue an acting career.
What can you say about this movie and how it impacted you?
ES: It’s a Los Angeles that’s very cinematic, and could really only exist in a movie.
“La La Land is a story about the kind of madness you need to keep hoping in spite of everything and everyone, and the courage required to pursue your dreams even when they seem impossible.”
I kind of struggled for three years while getting the occasional small part. I don’t know whether I would have been able to keep pushing for as long as she does.
Anything else?
ES: I really do see L.A. differently now. I had never even been inside the planetarium before, and now I’ve floated through space in there.
Tell me about your close pal Ryan Gosling as your leading man?
ES: There’s a comfort that comes with knowing someone for almost seven years. Ryan and I were asked to improvise a lot on Crazy, Stupid, Love. So going into La La Land, it was nice to know we could throw things at each other. We’ve become good friends over the years. He’s a very warm and funny guy to be around, and we have really good chemistry together. We knew we had that from our first few scenes working on Crazy, Stupid, Love together and that makes it so much fun for us to be on a set together. Damien really celebrated the idea that we’re regular people and not Broadway performers. If we tripped or something, he didn’t mind. We know each other so well now that it’s hard for us not to burst out laughing while we’re doing some of our scenes. Ryan is very sweet, kind, and nice and he’s also a really devoted dad.
What about when you reportedly tumbled over a bench during the first dance?
ES: Damien didn’t use that take! I was lucky that they didn’t need you to be technically perfect in dancing and singing for this kind of story. I was also fortunate to have had some experience in musical theatre productions like Cabaret, but it still took two months of hard work to learn the choreography. I had a lot of fun learning the dance numbers with Ryan though, because we’ve been good friends for so long and it’s much more pleasant and fun to spend all that time learning the dance numbers when you’re doing it with a close friend.
Please talk about the time early on in the process when you met with your director who took you through his ideas for some of the musical numbers.
ES: It was intoxicating. The idea of telling this really modern story of two struggling artists – but a 1950s-style musical version of today’s Los Angeles – became something really exciting to me very quickly.
How did you relate to Mia?
ES: Mia’s yearning for something beyond the ordinary also hit home with me. Mia is driven by something that maybe she doesn’t completely understand. She wants to be an artist in a city of so many people who seem to be just like her. She feels that there’s something special inside her, but she doesn’t quite know what it is. I could relate to her being an actress and going on auditions. But even more so, there was something so exciting about taking her into this musical world where you can suddenly spin down the street or burst into song. That was a wonderful challenge.
Your character suffers through some tough auditions, did you also go through those kinds of experiences?
ES: I came to Hollywood when I was 15, and unfortunately I have many bad experiences from auditioning which I was able to use to play Mia. Almost every actor I know has terrible audition stories and my worst memory was when I wasn’t allowed to have my lines before the actual audition took place. I was sixteen at the time, and I was having trouble getting the lines right. And this woman started screaming at me and telling me how unprofessional I was. It was insane. But I never had to suffer the kind of humiliating experiences that Mia has. Which is why I think she’s so brave and keeps going no matter what.
Did appearing in Cabaret prior to shooting La La Land give you more confidence?
ES: Oh, I was looking forward to it. I just have to take care of my voice because sometimes if I sing too loud I have problems with my vocal chords. I had to take medication while I was doing Cabaret because of that. But getting to play Sally Bowles on Broadway was a dream come true for me. When I was nine years old, my mother who loved the theatre, would take me from Scottsdale, Arizona where I was born to see Cabaret performed on Broadway. I remember we were able to buy the rush tickets and we got to sit in the front row. I’ll never forget that.
What does acting mean to you?
ES: I try to do my job, and hope that it helps bring a smile. And maybe some hope to people.
When you were trying to establish yourself in Hollywood, how determined were you to succeed?
ES: Acting was something that helped me overcome a lot of my anxiety and doubts in life. Your teenage years can often be very difficult, but I was very lucky that I knew that as soon as I started doing it that this was what I wanted to do with my life. So that gave me a lot of drive and ambition. But even after you start getting bigger parts and you’re getting more and more recognition you never really feel secure. You’re always worried about getting the next good role or how your last film did.
“I think that acting is the kind of profession where you’re always a bit worried about the future. You can be playing in one great film after another and still feel anxious about being able to find the same kinds of good roles. That’s the nature of the business.”
Is Hollywood a hard place to succeed in because there is so much competition?
ES: It’s an exciting place to be, and in some ways, disturbing. It’s not easy to live in a city where almost everyone has the same dream. Today, there are so many tools that can help aspiring actors get started compared to the past. It’s so much easier to make a short film and put it on social media. My advice to young actors is to just go ahead and do it! You don’t have to wait for someone to offer you a small part, you can write and make your short film and see where that takes you.
How did Damien Chazelle wind up casting the two of you together?
ES: Damien was a fan of our work in Crazy, Stupid, Love. He liked the idea of casting two actors who had already starred together before like in the golden era of musicals where Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire became a famous film couple. Not that I would compare myself to Ginger Rogers. But that’s the kind of chemistry Damien was looking for between us.
How do you feel about the awards season, and more awards for you?
ES: There’s no way of knowing what’s going to happen in the award season world. But right now, I’m just happy the movie is bringing people joy. These days, there tends to be these very small movies or big tent poles. I completely understand that, because it’s a lot of money and you want to make your money back. So something that’s not tried and tested is scary. It took Damien five years to get someone to say yes to this movie.
INTERVIEW: JESSICA YOUNG/FAMOUS
PHOTOGRAPHS: GETTY, WENN
